The Star Wars credits style is a kind of Crawl animation. In this style, the text crawls from bottom to the
top, as it also does with Crawl. Additionally, the text diminishes in size all the time until it fades into
oblivion. It is a real neat effect, and it is possible to accomplish it in
PowerPoint 2011 if you combine multiple animations.
To get started, download our ready to use Starfield PowerPoint template that
already has a night sky background image. In the download, you will find the Starfield template is available in both Standard
and Widescreen resolutions. You can use the one that you prefer. Before we proceed further, do remember to save your presentation
after each step!
- Double click the Starfield PowerPoint template file to create a new
PowerPoint presentation, based on this template. First, save the file with a new name. Your saved presentation may now have
two slides. Delete one of the slides so that there is only one slide left. Then
change the Slide Layout of the
remaining slide to Blank, as shown in Figure 1, below.
Figure 1: Slide layout changed to Blank
- Now insert a Text Box
on your slide and type one or two lines of the credits text, as shown in Figure 2. With the Text Box selected,
align text to the center of the Text
Box, and align the Text Box to
the center of the slide as shown in Figure 2. As the background is dark, the text needs to be in white or
another lighter color. You might also want to make the text bold and/or increase the size of the font (see Figure 2
again).
Figure 2: Text added
- Now drag the Text Box to the bottom center of the slide and choose the Animations tab on the
Ribbon, as shown highlighted in
red within Figure 3. With the Text Box still selected, click the
Paths button (highlighted in blue within Figure 3).
Figure 3: Paths button
- This brings up a drop-down gallery consisting various Motion Paths for the selected object. Choose the
Draw Line option, as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4: Draw Line option
- You will now find that the cursor changes to a crosshair icon, as shown in Figure 5, below.

Figure 5: Motion Path animation being applied
- Now drag this cursor starting from the Text Box till the top of the slide, to
draw a Motion
Path as shown in Figure 6.
Figure 6: Motion Path applied to the selected Text Box
- Within the Standard Toolbar,
click the Toolbox icon (highlighted in red within Figure 7)
to bring up the Toolbox, as shown in
Figure 7, below. Within the Toolbox, make sure that the
Custom Animation tab (first tab)
is selected. Within this tab select the Motion Path animation (highlighted in blue
within Figure 7).
Figure 7: Motion Path within the Custom Animation tab
- Within the Effect Options, make the settings to match the ones shown in Figure 8,
below (highlighted in red).
Figure 8: Effect Options for the Motion Path
- Next, access the Timing options with the same animation selected, and match your values to the ones shown in
Figure 9, below (highlighted in red).
Figure 9: Timing Options for the Motion Path
- With your Text Box still selected, add another animation. The animation you need to add now is Emphasis |
Grow/Shrink. Next, double-click the Grow/Shrink animation in the Custom Animation
tab of the Toolbox, as previously explained in Step 7. And, set the Effect Options
to match your values to the ones you see in Figure 10, below.

Figure 10: Effect Options for the Grow/Shrink animation
- Next access the Timing options with the same animation selected, and match your values to the ones shown
in Figure 11, below (highlighted in red). Do note that we changed the
Start value to With Previous. This ensures that the selected animation will happen along with
our previous animation, simultaneously.
Figure 11: Timing Options for the Grow/Shrink animation
- Let us now explore what we have achieved so far. The first animation we added was a Motion Path that moved
the Text Box from the bottom of the slide upwards. The second animation was an Emphasis animation that reduced
the size of the Text Box. Moreover, the second animation happened at the same time as the first one. We still need to add a third
animation so that our Text Box fades into oblivion as it exits upwards from the slide.
To do so, make sure that your Text Box is selected. Then add an Exit | Fade animation. Next,
double-click the Fade animation in the Custom Animation, tab of the ToolBox
as previously explained in Step 7. And, set the Timing options to match your values to the ones
you see in Figure 12, below.
Figure 12: Timing Options for the Fade animation
Since we require all the three animations to happen simultaneously, we chose the same speed for all three. Notice that the
Speed value is set to 3 seconds (Slow) in Figure 12, above. You will notice
the same speed for the other two animations in Figures 9 and 11. If you want to choose a
different speed, you’ll need to change the Speed value in all three animations.
- Next, drag the Text Box downwards and place it outside the Slide. This will ensure that the text is not seen in a
non-animated state while viewing in Slide Show view.
Preview and fine-tune again as required. You might want to extend the Motion Path upwards to compensate for the
added downward distance of the Text Box, as shown in Figure 13, below.
Figure 13: Text Box and Motion Path re-arranged
- Duplicate the Text Box by copying and pasting as many Text Boxes you need. Change the text credits as required by typing over
the existing text, and then place the new Text Boxes immediately over the earlier Text Box. You will repeat to create as many
Text Boxes as required. Since all the Text Boxes overlap each other, it might be a little difficult to edit the text within them
later. Use the Tab key to select each of these Text Boxes one at a time so that you don't make changes inadvertently in a Text Box that you did not intend to edit!
- Preview your slide. You might also want to
download a copy of the
presentation we created to check the settings used.
More Ideas
- We just duplicated an animated Text Box within the same slide. You can carry this concept forward to duplicate Text Boxes
across slides and even presentations, thus making short work of an otherwise tedious job.
- Experiment with adding a Star Wars style sound track to the credits slide – you can search the internet for a Star Wars
theme sound in WAV or MP3 format. Whatever you do, make sure you are respecting copyright implications.
See Also:
Star Wars Style
Credits Animation in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows
Star Wars
Style Credits Animation in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows